A shaman is a religious specialist in some traditional societies, especially those of Siberia and Inner Asia, where the English word came from. People in those communities believe this person can visit the spirit world — through song, drum, trance, or dream — and come back with help: to find what is making someone ill, to guide a soul, to ask the spirits for luck. English took the word from German Schamane, from Russian, from Evenki, a language of Siberia. The Evenki word may be tied to a root meaning “to know”; some writers also guess an older loan related to words for a monk. That second path is not settled, so we leave it as a maybe. Though actually, English now uses shaman quite loosely. Newspapers call healers and spirit-workers from many parts of the world shamans, even when those people have their own names and would not use this word. Some scholars say that stretch is too wide. A shaman is not a stage magician, and the word has nothing to do with shame.